For those still in the accumulation phase what are your working hours?

I keep a tally of my working hours for my main job and it tends to be around 43/44 hours a week (excluding holidays of course so overall it will be less). I also then have a second consulting gig on the side which is about another 5 hours a week on average. So about 48/49 hours a week.

I have been tossing up whether to ditch my side consulting gig lately. The hourly rate is quite high. But also its all top tax bracket so I only get to keep about 65% of it. There is also a limited earning potential as its consulting, not any type of business enterprise, so its going to be limited to my hourly rate. Only an active per hour income. It would be kind of nice to reclaim that extra 5 hours a week. Either for leisure or focussing on other revenue generating options which are not tied to time by the hour. I often feel I don't have enough time to consider such things because of working the amount each week I do.

Sometimes I think I feel like being FI because I work quite a lot. If I worked less I might be happier to just coast along. The side gig brings me in about $10k after tax a year. It also makes me better at my primary job too. There is a synergy. This is a benefit as well. In some ways its nice to have the side hustle as it gives me leverage and the ability not to worry as much in the unlikely event I lost my main job. But its whether its really worth it.

I work about a standard 38-40 hr week now, but it's usually condensed into 3 days. I used to work 4-5 12 hour days, but no longer.

I would not give up your side gig. I have no side gig, it's the major factor holding me from pulling the plug on full time accumulation. Even making 10K a year without additional potential goes a long way towards equalizing cash flow in the transition period. The is doubly so if you like it, it's flexible to location, and reasonably open ended with time freedom. I think you'll regret losing that income stream when you consider leaving accumulation or next time you want an extended break.

It varies but right now I'm working about 48/wk. That will probably go up slightly over the summer depending on how the projects go. The extra hours have been an important part of my run-up over the last 7 years.

Over those years I've gone as long as a year working a straight 40, and months at a time working more than 50/wk. There's definitely something to be said for working a more regular schedule, but for now my job is to accumulate as quickly as possible. For me getting to 0hr/wk of paid labor is important.

I find that there is a significant drop off in happiness after the initial thrill of hitting a certain income range. I hit over 300k a year by working way too much, I felt like I was killing myself slowly. I have since cut back to half that and now have a few hours of free time most days and am significantly happier.

Also, if you're paying out more than 20% in effective tax rates you're not doing your business taxes right.

For me the Mode is probably 50 hours, the median is probably somewhere around 52-55 hours. It's all in my primary employment though as I don't have any side guys/businesses yet. I do get paid at OT rate for the additional hours over 40.

I would not give up your side gig. I have no side gig, it's the major factor holding me from pulling the plug on full time accumulation. Even making 10K a year without additional potential goes a long way towards equalizing cash flow in the transition period. The is doubly so if you like it, it's flexible to location, and reasonably open ended with time freedom. I think you'll regret losing that income stream when you consider leaving accumulation or next time you want an extended break.

Do you want a side hustle? It seems that there is such abundance of opportunities for one. Have you thought about trying a few?

I'm in sales so my working hours vary quite a bit from week to week.
When I travel it's 99% of the time to the Asia Pacific Area, so these are long trips (two weeks) that usually involve me leaving on saturday and spending another weekend away from home.
If I consider the time spent on a plane + the weekends as "work hours", then I easily get up to 70ish hours per week, but I think that would be unfair.
I think my "real" average is around 60 when all is said and done.
I don't mind it that much because I like what I do

I would not give up your side gig. I have no side gig, it's the major factor holding me from pulling the plug on full time accumulation. Even making 10K a year without additional potential goes a long way towards equalizing cash flow in the transition period. The is doubly so if you like it, it's flexible to location, and reasonably open ended with time freedom.

As often, I agree 100% with c_L.
I'd love tohave a side gig and most probably could build myself one if I really tried to, but I make enough money and work enough as is.
Being the ultra-conservative person that I am, I'll probably start looking into consulting ONCE I am done with my accumulation phase, as an extra margin of safety.

I work 30h/week mon-fri, thus 6 hours a day, excluding 15min of interval for eating something. I can make a bigger interval of up to 2h if I want to. Can't think of any downside really, other than I'd like to not be required to wake up so early because I can't seem to adapt to sleeping so early.

It is also possible that at some point I'll be able to work from home, as a percentage of people in the company do, so when I'm able to quit, I may try to negotiate that instead.

As often, I agree 100% with c_L.
I'd love tohave a side gig and most probably could build myself one if I really tried to, but I make enough money and work enough as is.

It sounds nice, but the problem is burnout. When I was still employed full time I did lots of moonlighting, I had a few that wanted to keep paying me a few thousand a month in return for regular work, a retainer basically. At first I was thrilled, but after the initial thrill I had to end it because I suddenly was working 8 hr days + 2-3 hrs each night, I had no time for myself beyond grooming and eating. I think this situation can be tolerable and maybe even enjoyable for a month or two, but eventually the desire for free time outweighs the desire for more income. ESPECIALLY if you're already at a high savings rate, you're not getting any enjoyment out of the extra money, it's just numbers on a spreadsheet since it all goes straight into accounts and is never touched.

Do you want a side hustle? It seems that there is such abundance of opportunities for one. Have you thought about trying a few?

Yes, I do. Unfortunately I did not realize it until I reached a level in which it's importance became abundantly clear. I have a couple of very non inventive attempts percolating. Any suggestions?

Edit: @Augustus
This is why I never tried a side gig. In 2014, when first introduced to FIRE I basically spent all free time adding to income though current work arrangement. I more than doubled, so yea. Then in 2016 I became active on ERE and cutting expenses through various means was goal. Down about 40%, yea again. Now though, I am in the realm of more income for same amount of time at work being very difficult, and same with cutting expenses. Each unit of effort in those realms have reached diminishing returns to the point that a side gig I enjoy, averaging even $10 an hour is a web-of-goals competitive use of my time. I wish I had realized this point was coming.

Around 50-55 hours a week now. Left my 40 hour a day job for this. My thoughts is I'm young, still have energy, and as long as I'm in the accumulation phase I'm just gonna grind it out for a while. Luckily I like my job enough to put up with these hours.